


a star in somebody else's sky

by ohmcgee



Series: figure my heart out [1]
Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Summer Camp, M/M, Recreational Drug Use, Shotgunning, but great music, set in the 90's, the 90's had bad fashion choices
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-03
Updated: 2018-07-03
Packaged: 2019-06-01 17:52:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15148592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohmcgee/pseuds/ohmcgee
Summary: Roy pops the tab on his beer and tries not to think about how this is their last summer together .





	a star in somebody else's sky

**Author's Note:**

> 90's summer camp AU! Bonfires and Pearl Jam and unrequited love oh my! I have SO MUCH in store for this verse. So many pairings. So many shenanigans. So many bonfires! I love bonfires. Anyway, enjoy. I'm going to try really hard to update this once a week. So, we'll see how that goes. :)

Roy pops the tab on his beer and tries not to think about how this is their last summer together as Dick chases Kori and Donna around the fire. The first bonfire of the season has always felt kind of magical to Roy, the fluttering of embers when someone adds another log, getting drunk off cheap beer and dancing to the Pearl Jam CD playing from someone’s Discman, sneaking around and getting high underneath the stars with your best friend, but it doesn’t feel the same this year. This year Roy stands back and watches his friends enjoy themselves and thinks about how in just a few months they’ll be hundreds of miles apart, going to different colleges, living completely different lives. He hates it and he hates that he feels like the only one who’s affected by it, like no one else even cares. 

Kori’s squeals echo through the woods around them and Roy looks over to see her and Dick trying to reenact the jump scene from Dirty Dancing. Kori’s an inch or two taller than Dick, so she’s the one trying to catch him, but they’re both already too drunk to do anything but fall over and roll around in the grass together. Roy crushes the empty can in his hand and lets out a loud belch before walking over and tossing it in a trashcan. He hears the leaves crunch behind him right before he feels the hands covering his eyes and grins, swinging around and tackling Jason to the ground.

“You better have saved me one,” Jason smirks beneath him. He got a little heavy handed with the eyeliner tonight, but Roy kind of digs it. Shaking his head, he gives Jason a hand up and pulls a slightly warm can out of his hoodie pocket. At the rate Dick and Wally were going, he hadn’t figured there would be any left when Jason finally made it out.

“Sweet,” Jason takes it from him and pops the tab. “I didn’t think that asshole was ever going to call it a night.”

Roy can’t remember who’s on light’s out duty tonight, but Kyle’s pretty much the only person in the whole camp Jason doesn’t like, so he figures it must be him. Behind Jason, Roy hears a twig snap and when he looks around to see if it was a bear or what, there’s some kid he’s never seen before hovering next to a tree like he’s lost or something. He could be Jason’s age, sixteen going on thirty-five, but he could just as well be twelve. Roy’s not real good with eyeballing it, especially after a few Budweisers.

“He with you?” He asks Jason, jerking his head toward the skinny kid in the Ralph Lauren polo and the red chucks that look brand new and definitely not off-brand like Roy’s.

“Yeah,” Jason says, shooting a glance behind him. “This is Tim. He’s bunking with me this year.”

“Jay,” Roy frowns. He  _ hates _ to do this. In no way does Roy want to sound like he actually gives a shit about the rules or whatever, but he’s got no idea who this kid is. Hell, he didn’t even invite Jay out to the secret parties the senior counselors have every year until he was sure he wasn’t going to rat them out.

“He’s cool, Roy,” Jay rolls his eyes at him. “He’s not gonna say anything.”

Roy sighs and scratches the back of his neck, looking Tim over. “I don’t know, Jay. He --”

“I can go back,” Tim speaks up and Roy immediately feels like a piece of shit. “It’s okay, Jason. Thanks for --”

“Fuck it,” Roy says, shaking off his weird, melancholic mood. “Sorry. I was just being an asshole. You want a beer, kid?”

Tim just looks at him for a minute, the flames from the fire behind Roy reflected in his big, brown eyes, then slides his hands into the pockets of his hoodie and shrugs.

“Sure.”

 

: : : 

 

“Hey,” Roy finds Tim a little while later, sitting by himself on a huge tree trunk that has dozens of initials carved into it, the beer Roy had fished out of the ice chest for him half an hour ago still in his hands, barely touched, if at all. “What are you doing over here? Where’s Jay?”

Tim shrugs and looks down at his beer. Roy can’t believe Jay brought a new kid out here and just left him to fend for himself, that’s really not like him.

“You don’t drink?” Roy asks and Tim looks up at him, confused, before looking back down at the bottle in his hands.

“Oh,” he says. “I just. I guess I’m just kind of nervous. Not about the beer, just --”

“It’s your first year, right?” Roy asks, taking a seat on the tree trunk next to him. Tim nods. “Makes sense. I was pretty nervous my first week here. Didn’t know anybody. It sucked pretty hard.”

“Yeah,” Tim says quietly, picking at the label on the bottle. “I mean. Jay is really nice. It was super cool of him to let me tag along to your party, but I don’t think...I don’t really fit in.”

“Why?” Roy snorts. “Cause you’re not drunk? I mean, good point, but no. You’re totally cool. Just relax, man.”

Tim snorts. “You sound like a stoner,  _ man. _ ”

Roy flashes him a grin. “And what if I am?”

Tim just shakes his head, but he’s smiling a little. It’s a pretty thing, if a little shy, like it’s not used to coming out very often.

“Hey, you know what? That’s an awesome idea, actually,” Roy says and stands up. He takes a few steps, then looks over his shoulder at Tim. “You coming?”

Tim looks confused again, like he thinks it might be some kind of trap, but eventually, he stands up and follows Roy through the woods, leaving his beer behind on the tree trunk.

 

: : :

 

Roy’s starting to rethink this when he finally finds a good spot to smoke and lights up the joint he pulled out of his pocket. Tim looks like he’s either gonna call the cops or have a heart attack or something. 

“Aren’t you afraid of getting in trouble?” He asks, looking around nervously and scratching his arm where a mosquito just bit him. “What if someone sees us? What if --”

“Hey,” Roy says, grabbing Tim by the shoulder and lightly squeezing. “Calm down, okay? I do this all the time out here, lots of people do. We’re not gonna get in trouble. And hey, you don’t have to, you know?”

Tim’s eyebrows knit together as he nods. “Sorry for being such a loser.”

Roy takes a hit from the joint. “I’m the pothead,” he says after he exhales, giving Tim a small grin. “Doesn’t that make me the loser?”

“No,” Tim says, watching the greyish smoke curl up and drift away in the breeze, then looks back to Roy. “No way. You’re...really cool.”

It’s dumb, the way that makes Roy’s chest go all warm, but he figures it's mostly just the weed. He takes another hit, holds it for a little bit longer this time, and closes his eyes as he lets it out. Yeah, this was exactly what he needed. He’s already feeling a lot calmer than he was earlier, like he can’t even remember what he’d been so worried about.

“Hey,” he says, turning to Tim. They’re sitting next to each other in a grassy area leaning up against a huge rock. Roy had found this spot three years ago with Dick, but Dick hasn’t come out here with him to smoke since the summer Kori let him go down on her. “I know I said you don’t gotta do anything and you don’t, but I feel kinda rude and I just feel like this would really help you chill out, you know?.”

He holds the joint out to Tim as an offering and Tim just stares at it like he’s trying to figure it out.

“Um,” Tim says, hesitant. “I...”

“It’s cool,” Roy says, pulling his hand back. “Just wanted to offer --”

“Wait,” Tim blurts out. “ I -- I want to. I’ve just never done it before, so I don’t --”

“Oh,” Roy grins and sits up. Honestly, he loves this part, seeing the look on a newbie’s face when they take their first hit, walking them through it. He was there when Dick took his first hit too and Roy thinks that might've been when he fell in love. “It’s not that hard.”

With Dick it wasn’t hard. He’d already known that Dick smoked cigarettes sometimes, so Roy had just told him what to do and Dick had picked it up easily. Tim’s some kind of innocent little thing from suburbia, though, so Roy figures he needs to do things a little differently with him. Jason had had plenty of experience the first time he Roy smoked together, but Roy remembers something Jason had taught him last summer, the way they shared the last hit as the sun went down on the last day of camp.

“Okay,” Roy says. “This’ll be the easiest way for your first time. You won’t get too much, but you’ll get enough that you’ll be able to feel it. You ready?”

Tim just looks at him and nods, the moon brightening up his dark eyes.

“Kay,” Roy says. “When I breathe out, you breathe in.”

Tim nods again, so Roy places the joint between his lips and takes a deep drag. Tim’s eyes go wide when Roy’s fingers curl around his neck, but he leans in, and when Roy’s mouth opens a centimeter from his, Tim closes his eyes and inhales the smoke that Roy passes him. Roy watches Tim’s eyelashes flutter as he breathes it in, feels Tim’s hand clench in the flannel Roy has tied around his waist. He waits a second, then goes to pass the rest of the hit to Tim, but Roy’s swaying a little from the high and this time when Roy opens his mouth he gets a little too close and it brushes against Tim’s for a second. Tim’s eyes fly open at the contact, then he licks his lips absentmindedly and when Roy feels the brief swipe of his tongue he jumps back a little.

“Sorry,” Tim says immediately. “Sorry. I didn’t --”

“It’s cool,” Roy says, adding a smile to make sure Tim knows he’s not freaked out or anything. “It was an accident. No worries.”

Tim blinks up at him again, eyes less focused than before. Roy can tell the hit they shared is hitting him now and he looks just as pretty as Roy remembers Dick looking that first time, all his sharp edges softened, open and vulnerable, like he might actually tell him how he really feels.

“I’ve never kissed anybody before.”

Tim’s words feel like they reach into Roy’s chest and squeeze the air out of his lungs. Man, he was not expecting things to go like this. He just wanted to take the kid away from the crowd, get him to calm down a little, maybe tell him a couple of stories to get him used to the place. He wasn’t expecting some pretty piece of jailbait to want to makeout with him.

“Uh --”

“I’ve never even,” Tim starts, then sighs. Then leans in and presses his mouth against Roy’s again. And Roy lets him because Tim’s not the only one that’s a little high and a little needy, though later he’ll blame the fact that he didn’t stop Tim immediately on his slowed reflexes and not the fact that his lips looked soft and plush and Roy was just curious how they might feel against him.

Miraculously, Roy does manage to put his hand on Tim’s shoulder and gently pull him back after a moment.

“Uh, Tim?”

“I’ve never had a girlfriend before,” Tim says, then blushes a little pinker. “Or a boyfriend.”

Oh, Jesus. Roy cannot believe this is happening. All he wanted to do was help Tim relax a little, not --

“It's just that I...I think I like Jason. A lot. And he's so..." Tim ducks his head, cheeks gone scarlet. "I guess I just wanted to be able to say that I've kissed somebody.”

Roy breathes out a sigh of relief, then smiles and reaches over to ruffle Tim’s hair.  “He is pretty cute, huh?”

Tim's blush spreads down his neck and he shoves Roy in the shoulder playfully, but Roy just reaches over and ruffles Tim's hair up. "Yeah," he says, bringing the joint back to his lips to take another hit before leaning back up against the rock. "You're gonna fit in just fine."

**Author's Note:**

> Sometimes I whine about how hard writing is on [twitter](https://twitter.com/ohmcgee).


End file.
